Mobile Internet is Faster Than Wi-Fi in Pakistan: Report

Even before 5G has taken over the world, mobile internet is proving to be better than Wi-Fi in some countries.

According to a study conducted by OpenSignal, mobile data is faster than Wi-Fi hotspots in 33 countries including Pakistan and many African, Latin American, European, and Middle Eastern states.

The difference in both speeds is quite significant.

In countries like Singapore, Hong Kong, the US, and South Korea, Wi-Fi is working better. But in countries like Australia, Pakistan, Lebanon, Iran, and more, LTE is proving to be more effective with respect to download speeds.

Australia is at the top in the list of countries where Mobile data is faster than the Wi-Fi hotspots, Algeria is the last in the list.

As for the difference between the average LTE and Wi-Fi speeds, Australia manifests a difference of 13 Mbps, Saudi Arabia at 1.6 Mbps, Iran 8.3, while Pakistan has a difference of 2.3 Mbps on average.

OpenSignal, commenting on the findings, has suggested that both device makers and users have to change their assumptions that Wi-Fi is always the best.

It used to be true when smartphones were a relatively new introduction, but with the advent of LTE, things have changed significantly.

Besides, Wi-Fi comes with its own issues like overcrowded networks despite being useful for local networking and places with data caps.

Therefore, it seems that the tide is more in favor of cellular data, as compared to Wi-Fi, especially in Pakistan. According to the Global Digital Report, the mobile internet users in Pakistan accounted for 21 percent of its total population at the end of January 2018.

Moreover, certain projections have indicated that this number is on the rise persistently since then.

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Quite honestly our wired internet speeds are embarrassing, especially when compared with 4G speeds. I hope that the government steps in, not only to make internet faster and cheaper, but also to promote growth of fiber optic internet into new areas and cities as it’ll drastically improve the economy.

ISPs and Govt. of Pakistan should reduce the taxes and price of the internet in order to make Wired or FTTH (Fiber To The Home) connections more popular among the people. Awareness should be made to the people of Pakistan that FTTH is more reliable than mobile broadband as it provides low latency and high speed as compared to LTE. Reduced latency means a website will be accessed more quickly than wireless broadband due to negligible packet loss.